Here is one possibility. Look for naming traditions: first son, second son, third son ditto with daughters. In my village it was 1stson = father's given name, 2nd= father's father, 3rd: mother's father. It's not definitive, and it is clearly circumstantial, but it may provide some clues. Bill Tarkulich -----Original Message----- From: Michael & Lorrie Kzirian [mailto:mkzirian@worldnet.att.net] Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 11:48 AM To: SLOVAKIA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: Research Tips - LDS to get all the surnames of the ancestors and will then go through the entire > records once i know what the surnames are and jot down names and dates > of these surnames and goal is to put together all the relatives in my > database.....with the limited times the LDS in my area is open, i am > sure that i will have to rent the films indefinitely....only problem i > have found > so far is that when you are dealing with common Slovak surnames there > are sometimes two children baptized within a few years of each other > with the same given and surname with different parents and same town > of birth..... This is exactly what I've been doing for about 4 years. I go over them again and again, sometimes picking up something I've missed. But you are so right about common names. I'm dead-ended at one of my ancestors, Andrew Kolesar. There are FOUR Andrew Kolesar's born within a very short time-frame. All of them married Susanna's! There's absolutely no way to figure out which one is my ancestor. Lorrie ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237